Generating WiFi Channel Interference

Some test cases may require that a channel be loaded with WiFi traffic while the systems under test run traffic. A LANforge device with two radios (or two single radio devices) can load a channel with no additional equipment.

The strategy is to make one radio act as an AP, and the other radio the clients. LANforge supports up to 4 virtual APs per radio. The directions below assume that you are using a dual-radio system, but the procedure is similar when using two LANforge devices with single radios.

Create a Virtual AP on the first radio (wiphy0).

1. Select the 'Port-Mgr' tab in the LANforge-GUI.
2. Select the 'wiphy0' row (see the 'Alias' column).
3. Double-Click the wiphy0 row and set the Channel selection to the desired channel.
4. Click on the 'Create' button near the top-right of the Port-Mgr tab.
5. Choose the 'WiFi VAP' button, and fill in the rest of the information. Then press 'OK'.
6. Check the 'Port-Mgr' tab to make sure the new interface was properly created. You can double-click it to make further modifications.

1. Select the 'Port-Mgr' tab in the LANforge-GUI.
2. Select the 'wiphy1' row (see the 'Alias' column).
3. Click on the 'Create' button near the top-right of the Port-Mgr tab.
4. Choose the 'WiFi STA' button, and fill in the rest of the information. Use quantity of 2. Then press 'OK'.
5. Check the 'Port-Mgr' tab to make sure the new interfaces were properly created. You can double-click them to make further modifications. The SSID should match that of the AP that you created on wiphy0.
6. Select the 'Layer-3' tab in the LANforge-GUI and create UDP connections between the two virtual stations. Configure the connection for the desired speed, packet-size, etc.
7. Start the Layer-3 UDP connection to create the WiFi traffic and thus load the channel with WiFi packets.
8. Verify that the system-under-test can still meet its goals.